THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



317 



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FARMING ECONOMIES. 

 THE CONSUMPTION OF ROOT CROPS BY LIVE STOCK. 



Dear Sir, — Believing that unprofitable mistakes are 

 commonly committed in this matter, 1 beg to offer a few re- 

 marks that may tend to correct them. The question appears 

 to hinge upon what proportion water should bear to the dry 

 food consumed. Turnips contain 90 to 92 per cent, of water ; 

 mangel, 88 per cent. ; grass, V.") per cent. If we wish to keep 

 a horse in good condition we give him 20 to 251b8. of dry 

 food, and 40 to SOlbs. of water daily ; but if we feed our 

 sheep or bullocks entirely on turnips, we compel them to take 

 91b3. or pints of water with every pound or pint of dry food ; 

 or, as a sheep will consume 201b8. of roots daily, we compel it 

 to take nearly two gallons of water with its 21bs. of dry 

 food. A bullock consuming ISOlbs. of turnips daily would 

 be compelled to take \o\ gallons of water with ISlbs. of dry 

 dry food. The consequence of this treatment is to tax very 

 unduly the urinary o/gans, and prevent the accumulation of 

 fat and muscle. This is bad enough in mild weather, with a 

 tolerably high temperature : but with such a winter as we have 

 passed through, with turnips at a freezing or very low tem- 

 perature, let us imagine what an absorption of caloric must 

 be taken from the stomach and system of the sheep which has 

 to raise to the digestive temperature, or, in fact, to warm two 

 gallons of cold water or ice some forty to fifty degrees. Can 

 we wonder at the laxative scouring of sheep or bullocks, and 

 the consequent inflammation or death ? And cannot farmers 

 now understand why my live stock losses are so small com- 

 pared with theirs, when I avoid such treatments ? Need 

 we be surprised that our stock thrive so much better as fhe 

 spring advances, when the temperature of the atmosphere and 

 of the roots ia so considerably raised, and when the latter 

 have lost a large percentage of their moisture ? What would 

 be the condition of our carriage horses, and what would the 

 groom say, if we compelled each horse to drink eighteen gal- 

 lons of water with his 201b8. of hay and oats ? and yet this 

 is how we treat our sheep and beasts when they have only 

 turnips. Our cannie friends in the North give plenty of straw 

 to their bullocks, and yet, for want of carrying fine cut straw- 

 chaff and rapecake to their hill-sheep during the past severe 

 winter, thousands of them have perished that might have 

 been cheaply saved. It is a great mistake not to give to 

 hill-sheep rapecake : at present prices it would pay in the 

 mutton, independently of the profit gained by fertilized and 

 improved pasturage. 



Let us see what a lesson nature teaches us in this matter. 

 Grass, during the vernal and growing season, contains 25 per 

 cent, of dry matter ; and the 75 per cent, of water it contains 

 is at a temperature which I can imagine to be considerably 

 raised by the rays of a May or June sun. Farmers have a 

 saying that sheep thrive much better ou roast meat than 

 boiled, meaning that the diminished percentage of moisture 

 and increased temperature of the food in the hot months, 

 abstract little caloric from the internal animal system ; whilst 

 the exterior surface of their bodies being surrounded by a 

 summer temperature, makes no demand upon their food to 

 keep up the natural animal warmth. Farmers know quite 

 well that there is diminished quality in grass when the sum- 

 mer has departed, and there is an absence of heat and light ; 

 and most people know the evil results when animals consume 



green food with the hoar frost upon it, or when very wet from 

 rains. 



Nature has indicated that we should make hay while the 

 sun shines, as a provision for winter, and that the grass hav- 

 ing lost sixty-five per cent, of water by drying, we mast make 

 up the deficiency by providing our animals with drink. Na- 

 ture has taught them the proper quantity to take ; and a wise 

 farmer would in cold weather take care that the temperature 

 of the water should be warm, and thus our live stock would 

 fatten with a smaller quantity of food. Farm or other horses 

 would much less often die from gripes and inflammation if, 

 when they came in heated from their work, they were allowed 

 to drink warm water, instead of being walked into a horse- 

 pond, or allowed to drink water many degrees below the tem- 

 perature of their stomachs. Our London brewers understand 

 this. A small steam-pipe passes through their water-tanks, 

 keeping the water always at a proper warmth. The horses 

 drink when they please, without risk of injury. Bullocks 

 ought to be treated in the same way. The pulping of roots 

 and mixing them with cut straw have soon come into favour 

 with farmers, because it diminishes the disproportionate 

 quantity of water which the animals are compelled to take in 

 their roots when they have no dry food. Sheep should always 

 have one pound of clover or grass-hay, or some cut straw, and 

 one pound of rapecake, when on turnips, in cold or wet wea- 

 ther. This would diminish the consumption of turnips, and 

 restore a proper equilibrium between the dry food and water, 

 and would add fertility to the soil. This would bring a better 

 price for the turnips consumed. If no hay is given, fine cut 

 straw will answer admirably, and you will find that your straw 

 thus applied will realize a much better price than when merely 

 used as bedding. It is interesting to see how well the ani- 

 mals discriminate in their use of straw or cut chaff'. A wet 

 or cold day will cause them to eat it in larger quantities. 

 When grasses are saturated with rain, a little dry food ia 

 most acceptable to animals, and they will thrive much better 

 upon it. 



In conclusion, a wise farmer will so limit his consumption 

 of roots by each animal, that the water contained in them 

 should approximate to the quantity he would give to an animal 

 eating dry food. Four gallons, or 401bs. of water per day 

 would be a full allowance for a bullock, and this quantity 

 would be contained in 451b3. of roots. Probably a bushel of 

 roots, weighing SOlbs., would be a fair average quantity for a 

 full-sized bullock, and a proportionate quantity for sheep. 



Great objection and considerable disbelief have been ex- 

 pressed by my farming friends at my small annual loss of 

 stock, estimated at Is. per acre ; but if they carry out the 

 principles laid down in this communication, with the addition 

 of good winter and summer shelter for stock, they will find 

 my allowance for loss very ample. It is really fearful and 

 melancholy to witness the losses arising from ignorance or 

 mismanagement. I see it around me too constantly. A sud- 

 den and full supply of succulent mangel, young and watery 

 tares, or a draught of cold water to a heated animal, produce 

 laxity or flatulence, constipation, inflammation, or death. It 

 is highly desirable that the root-cutting house should have a 

 high temperature. A^a my horses consume many mangels, 



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